This invention relates generally to hose or tubing provided with at least one inner partition dividing such hose or tubing into a plurality of passageways or lumen and where there is a need to know that such inner partition is present in such tubing. More particularly, this invention relates to hose including an at least substantially transparent tubular member or peripheral wall provided with at least one colored inner partition dividing such tubular member or peripheral wall into a plurality of passageways or lumen and where such inner partition is optically perceptible through such tubular member or peripheral wall.
The terms color or colored as used herein and in the appended claims are used in the sense of a phenomenon of light, or visual perception by the eye of the human being, or optical perception by optical apparatus of the type known to the art for recognizing color, that enables the eye of a human being or such optical apparatus to differentiate otherwise identical objects.
The term optically perceptible as used herein and in the appended claims is used to include visual perception by the eye of a human being and perception by optical apparatus of the type known to the art for recognizing color.
The term at least substantially transparent as used herein and in the appended claims with regard to the present invention means that the tubular member or peripheral wall comprising the hose or tubing is sufficiently transparent to permit the at least one colored inner partition dividing the tubular member or peripheral wall into a plurality of lumen to be optically perceptible through the hose or tubing. It will be further understood that the term at least substantially transparent as used herein and in the appended claims with regard to the tubular member or peripheral wall means that the tubular member or peripheral wall also may be colored but if colored will still be sufficiently transparent to permit the colored inner partition to be optically perceptible therethrough. The colored substantially transparent tubular member or peripheral wall may be of a first color and the colored inner partition may be of a second color or the colored substantially transparent tubular member or peripheral wall and inner partition may be of the same color but with the inner partition being of a darker same color such that it is optically perceptible through the colored tubular member or peripheral wall.
Still more particularly, this invention relates to multi-lumen hose, and by way of example and not by way of limitation, dual-lumen hose of the type used to communicate anesthesia gas from an anesthesia machine or breathing gas such as oxygen, or oxygen enriched gas, from a ventilator, to a patient""s mask or endotracheal tube, and thereby to the patient, and for communicating exhalation gas from the patient back to the anesthesia machine or ventilator. Flexible multi-lumen dual-lumen hose or tubing, sometimes referred to as dual passageway or dual air passageway, hose, tubing or connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,121,74 and 5,996,639.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,746 entitled ANESTHETIC AND RESPIRATOR BREATHING CIRCUIT DEVICE, John R. Sikora inventor, patented Jun. 16, 1992, is incorporated herein by reference as if fully reproduced herein. The Sikora patent, FIG. 3, discloses a multi-passage or lumen flexible connector pipe (hose) 30 including outer walls 22 and 21 and an inner wall, or inner partition, 25 dividing the pipe into passages or lumen 31 and 32. As shown in FIG. 3, the outer walls of the pipe 30 are corrugated, and the inner wall or partition 25 also is corrugated. The Sikora patent teaches in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2 that anesthesia gas from the anesthetic machine 8 is communicated to the patient""s mask 11 through the passage or lumen 32 provided in the pipe 30 and that exhalation gas from the patient""s mask 11 is communicated back to the anesthetic machine through the passageway 31 formed in the pipe 30. In connection with FIGS. 2 and 3, the Sikora patent teaches that breathing gas, such as an enriched gaseous mixture of oxygen, is communicated to the patient""s mask 11 through the passage or lumen 32 formed in the connector pipe 30 and that exhalation gas from the patient""s mask 11 is communicated back to the respirator 15 through the passage or lumen 31 formed in the connector pipe 30. This patent also discloses that the dividing wall, dividing wall 25, FIG. 3, can be substantially planar dividing wall as recited in claim 1 of this patent, and which dividing wall as taught in this patent may be a substantially planar chordal dividing wall which divides the cross-section of the flexible tubular member into a larger and a smaller cross-section so as to provide first and second fluid flow paths of different sizes through the pipe (hose).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,639 entitled MULTIPLE COMPARTMENT CORRUGATED HOSE, Leo Gans et al., patented Dec. 7, 1999, is incorporated herein by reference as if fully reproduced herein. This patent teaches that it is an improvement over the multi-compartment hose disclosed in the Sikora patent and discloses a flexible multi-lumen hose including a corrugated peripheral wall and a corrugated inner partition. As shown in FIG. 3 of this patent, the hose 10 includes a corrugated peripheral wall 20 and a corrugated inner partition 70 dividing the hose into two lumen 50 and 60 better seen in FIG. 1.
Des. Pat. Nos. Des. 405,522 and Des. 424,687, patented Feb. 9, 2000 and May 9, 2000, respectively, disclose multiple embodiments of ornamental designs of breathing tubes for conveying oxygen or anesthesia gas to lungs and conveying exhaled gas away from lungs of a patient, Richard Hoenig inventor of both of these design patents, and these design patents are assigned to the same assignee as the present invention; these design patents are incorporated herein by reference as if fully reproduced herein.
Also known to the prior art are various ways of manufacturing corrugated hoses such as by the well-known continuous blow molding or vacuum assisted blow molding methods. One such manufacturing method, as noted in the incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,639, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,286,305 entitled APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUS MANUFACTURE OF HOLLOW ARTICLES, P. H. Seckel inventor, patented Nov. 22, 1966, and which patent is incorporated herein as if fully reproduced herein.
The peripheral wall and inner partition of the typical multi-lumen prior art flexible corrugated hose are typically extruded together, from the same plastic material, and in a single pass or single extrusion from an extruder. Such multi-lumen prior art flexible hose is shown in FIG. 1 and indicated by general numerical designation 10. The hose 10 includes a corrugated tubular member or peripheral wall 12 and an inner partition, sometimes referred to in the art as a septum, 14 dividing the tubular member or peripheral wall 12 into a plurality of lumen 15 and 16; the prior art hose 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes a substantially planar inner partition 14 and it will be understood that, alternately, such prior art hose may include a corrugated inner partition as taught in the incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,639. Prior art hose 10, shown in FIG. 1, as taught above with regard to the incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,746, is useful for communicating breathing gas or anesthesia gas, from a ventilator or anesthesia machine to a patient through one lumen and for communicating exhalation gas from the patient back to the anesthesia or ventilator through the other lumen. The tubular member or peripheral wall 12 and the inner partition 14 of the prior art hose 10 of FIG. 1 typically are extruded together from a single plastic material, typically the above-noted polyethylene, and hence both the tubular member or outer peripheral wall 12 and the inner partition 14 are transparent, or at least substantially transparent, or even clear.
Also known to the prior art, as illustrated in FIG. 2, are flexible corrugated hose or tubing 18, not having an inner partition, and providing only a single lumen 19 therethrough. The single lumen prior art tubing 18 also is typically made of polyethylene and therefore is transparent, or at least substantially transparent or even clear.
As known to those skilled in the art, in some medical applications a single lumen flexible corrugated hose is required for interconnection between a patient or the patient""s mask and a medical machine, and in other medical applications it is required that a multi-lumen, particularly dual lumen, flexible corrugated hose be connected between a patient, or the patient""s mask and a medical machine. It has been found that when the prior art multi-lumen hose 10 of FIG. 1, having an inner partition 14, and the prior art single lumen hose 18 of FIG. 2 are present together confusion between the dual lumen hose 10 and the single lumen hose 18 can exist because the human eye cannot always see the transparent, or at least substantially transparent, inner partition 14 included in dual lumen hose 10 and a clinician, or other health provider can incorrectly connect the prior art dual lumen hose 10 (FIG. 1) between a patient and a medical machine when it is intended that the prior art single lumen hose 18 (FIG. 2) be connected between the patient and the medical machine, and the reverse can also occur. Such incorrect hose connection can produce dire consequences to the patient.
In light of the foregoing background and prior art patents, it will be understood that this invention relates more particularly to flexible, multi-lumen hose or tubing of the type known to the art for communicating breathing or anesthesia gas to a patient and for communicating the patient""s exhalation gas away from the patient. Such hose or tubing is sometimes referred to in the art as breathing tube, breathing circuit tubing, hose or connector pipe, and all such terms will be referred to hereinafter and in the appended claims as hose.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for hose having an inner partition dividing the hose into a plurality of lumen and which partition can be readily distinguished optically from single lumen hose, particularly by the visual perception of the human eye at a glance.
It is the object of the present invention to satisfy the foregoing need in the hose art.
Multi-lumen hose satisfying such need and incorporating the present invention may include a substantially transparent tubular member provided with at least one colored inner partition dividing the tubular member into a plurality of lumen and wherein the colored inner partition is optically perceptible through the tubular member by the human eye or by optical apparatus known to the art for recognizing color.